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Provincetown Swim for Life and Paddler Flotilla

    IMMERSION

    The Swim Is This Saturday

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The 35th Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla is this Saturday, Sept. 10. You can still sign up to swim at swim4life.org (procrastinators may join the morning of, under the big white tent at Cannery Wharf Park, 387 Commercial St.).

    Participants pledge $100, and swimmers, kayakers, walkers, and volunteers line up friends to add their donations. The funds raised go, through the Provincetown Community Compact, to support health-care and advocacy organizations including the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Outer Cape Health Services, and Helping Our Women.

    The artwork on this year’s Swim for Life T-shirts is My Studio, a block print by Tod Lindenmuth (1885–1976). Jay Critchley says he likes it for the way it contrasts bright energy with melancholy. Lindenmuth was a founder of the Provincetown Art Association; the print is in the PAAM collection. (Image courtesy Provincetown Community Compact)

    There’s a new beneficiary this year: the Native Land Conservancy. Based in Mashpee and organized by indigenous people, the nonprofit aims to protect and preserve sacred lands.

    As of Tuesday, 922 people had donated $92,631 via the Compact’s website. Executive director Jay Critchley says that the $200,000 goal posted on the site is “aspirational.”

    Swimmers cover a 1.2-mile route that starts on the beach at Snail Road across from the Harbor and Breakwater hotels at 11 a.m. It follows the shore to the finish line at Cannery Wharf Park. Those new to the swim may want to attend an orientation on Friday, Sept. 9. For swimmers, that’s at 1 p.m., and for kayakers at 2 p.m. at Cannery Wharf Park.

    There is a parallel swim at Great Pond in Wellfleet. Registration is also online or at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The pond swim, limited to 50 swimmers, starts at 8 a.m.

    This year, Seamen’s Bank President and CEO Lori Meads will be honored with the David Asher volunteer award for the decades she and her colleagues have given to working on the Swim.

    The Compact has set up watch parties so people can cheer on the swimmers. One is at St. Mary’s, 517 Commercial St., and another at the Cape Codder Guest House, at number 580. They’re encouraging other waterfront-dwellers to do the same.

    The finish-line celebration, including awards and the Mermaid Brunch with food by Far Land Provisions and music by Zoë Lewis, will be under a tent at Cannery Wharf Park. It is free and open to the public.

    STILL KICKING

    The Swim Comes Back to Life

    243 swimmers, 150 volunteers, and countless prayer ribbons on Sept. 11

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — When 243 swimmers dove into the Swim for Life and Paddler Flotilla on Saturday, “It was a joyful return to the water,” said Jay Critchley, creator of the event and director of the Provincetown Community Compact, the organization that sponsors it. Last year’s event was conducted remotely because of the pandemic.

    In Provincetown, the Swim started in the far East End, near the Breakwater and Harbor hotels. From there, 171 swimmers followed a route close to the shore, covering 1.2 miles to the finish line at the new East End Waterfront Park.

    In years past, participants swam from Long Point across the harbor, but the presence of sharks inspired a new route. Critchley, ever optimistic, pointed out an upside: this way people can cheer from waterfront houses as swimmers splash by.

    Prayer ribbons line the waterfront finish line on Sept. 11 for the annual Provincetown Swim for Life. (Photo Jay Critchley)

    A Cessna airplane flew overheard, sharkspotting, just in case. It was supplied by Cape Cod Ocean Community, a Wellfleet-based nonprofit that advocates for shark safety awareness and surveillance.

    Another 39 participants joined the Swim at Great Pond in Wellfleet. That course, for those who are “harborly challenged,” as Critchley put it, covered about two-thirds of a mile. Joan Nagle, 87, the swimming coach who first organized the Great Pond event in 2019, helped train and encourage the Great Pond Mermaids team this year.

    With 33 other people taking part by “swimming in place” around the country, a total of 243 people jumped into the fundraiser this year. In addition, 150 or so volunteers kayaked, staffed the Mermaid Tea at the finish line, and worked to register swimmers at the Boatslip. Zoë Lewis saw to the music.

    Swim for Life celebrates “the healing waters and ecology of the harbor,” according to Critchley, and money raised by the Swim goes primarily to the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Helping Our Women, and Outer Cape Health Services. Other local nonprofit organizations that promote health also benefit; those include Provincetown Rescue Squad Association, Lower Cape Ambulance Association, Soup Kitchen in Provincetown, Provincetown Schools, the Compact Community Fund, Accessible Provincetown, the West End Racing Club, and Cape Cod Children’s Place.

    Forty-three swimmers and kayakers raised a thousand dollars or more and joined the $1,000 Club, according to Critchley. His rundown of this year’s top fundraisers noted that artist Jim Youngerman of Lenox, who designed this year’s Swim T-shirt, raised $12,433; Boe Morgan of the Moving Violations Team from Roslindale raised $10,683; Barbara Jo Ravelle of Wellfleet raised $6,198; Jonathan Scott of Provincetown pulled in $3,977; and Katherine Gail Strickland of Provincetown, a member of the Compact’s board, raised $3,585. Business sponsors provide a boost to the fundraising effort as well.

    Ten-year swimmers Laurie Shields and Thomas Keske received Circle of Honor pendants created by Christie Andreson. Special recognition was given to Joe Stewart from Baltimore, Md., who swam for the 31st time. Stewart also organizes a sister Swim for Life in Maryland.

    The sun sparkled on the day of the Swim, Saturday, Sept. 11. In remembrance of all that was lost on that date 20 years ago, the finish line at the East End Waterfront Park was marked by a 150-foot semi-circle on the beach, strung with prayer ribbons that blew in the breeze against a perfect blue sky.

    BUOYANCY

    Joan Nagle Is Outer Cape’s Swimming Guru

    At 87, she still inspires swimmers to trust the water

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    WELLFLEET — Buoyancy. That’s the key to being a good swimmer, according to Joan Nagle, the Outer Cape’s unofficial swimming guru.

    “A lot of people think they need their arms and their legs to stay up,” Nagle says. “But the main thing is you have to feel your buoyancy. You have to trust yourself in the water and trust the water itself.”

    Nagle, now 87 years old, has been swimming her whole life.

    “When I was four, my father encouraged me to jump off a raft and go for the shore,” she recalls.

    Nagle has lived at Seashore Point in Provincetown since March 2020, but she grew up in New Haven, Conn., where she swam for the New Haven YMCA. She was pretty good. When she was 15, she was one of about 12 swimmers to represent the state of Connecticut at a national competition in Orlando, Fla. Her main event was the 200-meter breaststroke.

    Back then, she says, there were no lane lines and swimmers didn’t wear goggles. “There was no pressure in those days,” Nagle says. “I was a kid who went and swam.”

    Nagle practically swam her way to the Outer Cape. She used to swim the Long Island Sound. She came to the Cape full time in the 1970s and served as the aquatics director at Sandwich High School from 1987 to 1997. Now, for more than a decade, she’s been swimming the ponds of the Outer Cape. Great Pond in Truro and Great Pond in Wellfleet are two of her favorites.

    Twelve years ago, Nagle started a women’s swim class through the Wellfleet Council on Aging. The group meets at Great Pond in Wellfleet throughout the summer and fall.

    What it’s given her, Nagle says, is “the gratification of teaching people who had a fear of water.”

    The class started with just a few women, but now 30 are registered. They come from Eastham, Wellfleet, and Truro to do water aerobics and swimming exercises together. This summer, the class has met regularly on Monday and Friday mornings.

    “Joan taught us how to swim properly,” says Christine Shreeves of Wellfleet.

    After class at Great Pond in Wellfleet are, left to right, Christine Shreeves, Candace Perry, Chery Watkinson, Joan Nagle, Bonnie Kramer, and Mary Goodhouse. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    Nagle was the instructor until June this year. When she decided to take a step back, five students — Shreeves, Candace Perry, Chery Watkinson, Bonnie Kramer, and Mary Goodhouse — stepped up to take her place. But she remains the group’s guidestar.

    “She’s our original inspiration and instructor,” says Watkinson.

    “Our mentor,” adds Kramer.

    After class, the women usually go out for coffee and breakfast.

    Nagle relishes time with these friends. She remembers when there weren’t a lot of opportunities for women in sports.

    “It wasn’t very popular to be a woman athlete growing up,” Nagle said. “It was cheerleading, cheerleading, or cheerleading.”

    Nagle attended Purdue University from 1951 to 1955 and swam for the Lafayette Country Club, a competitive swim team established in 1948.

    “It was the only place a woman could swim,” she said. Nagle swam competitively during her first two years and after that got into synchronized swimming.

    She organized the first Swim for Life event at Great Pond in Wellfleet in 2019. Swim for Life, started by Jay Critchley and Walter McLean in 1988, is a fundraiser for the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. Traditionally, it takes place in Provincetown Harbor. This year’s course, which stays close to shore, is 1.2 miles long.

    The Great Pond swim is an extension of the event for those who are “harborly challenged,” as Critchley puts it. The pond course covers about two-thirds of a mile, and a group of Nagle’s students participate in it together as a team — the Wellfleet Great Pond Mermaids.

    Nagle doesn’t swim as much as she used to, but she finished the Swim for Life course in Great Pond in 2019. And she still enjoys the water.

    “One thing you can do for your whole life is swimming,” she says.

    Candace Perry remembers finishing the harbor swim in Provincetown a few years back. It took her two hours, and she felt pretty good about that time, until she found out Nagle had finished in 55 minutes.

    Swimmers and Paddlers

    This year’s Swim for Life artwork is by Jim Youngerman.

    This year’s 34th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla is set for Saturday, Sept. 11. Swimmers will follow a new shoreline route, and SharkWatch will monitor the harbor for creatures before and during the swim, according to Jay Critchley, who organizes the annual fundraiser to benefit the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Helping Our Women, Outer Cape Health Services, and other community organizations.

    Christie Andresen will be honored with the David Asher volunteer award, and Jim Youngerman created this year’s artwork for the Swim.

    New this year are an afternoon starting time and a Mermaid Tea at Waterfront Park. There will also be a morning Swim at Wellfleet’s Great Pond.

    Vaccinations are required for all participants and spectators.

    The minimum pledge to participate is $100.

    Find details on the schedule and register at the Swim for Life website: swim4life.org.

    The Return of ‘Swim for Life’

    By

    The 34th Provincetown Swim for Life and Paddler Flotilla will be held at high tide, 3 p.m., on Saturday, September 11th. Sponsored by the Provincetown Community Compact, swimmers, kayakers, and boaters will follow a new harbor route starting from the beach at Snail Road in the East End and ending near MacMillan Wharf at the new East End Waterfront Park. It will be followed by a post-swim Mermaid Tea.

    This year’s T-shirt artist is Jim Youngerman, a longtime Swim for Life participant from Lenox. “The Swim and the community made waves in response to HIV/AIDS,” says Compact Director Jay Critchley, “and now we have a renewed mission to strengthen our resilience as we act to create a more diverse and equitable future.” Registration is open at swim4life.org.

     

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